Astronomical Azimuth Determination by Lunar Observations
Publication: Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 2
Abstract
The moon is the brightest celestial body in the night sky, and it is of some value when determining the astronomical azimuth on a cloudy or foggy night or in a light-polluted city when there is no visible star. Based on the edge observations of the apparent moon using a total station, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, a portable computer, and some appropriate software and instrumentation, an innovative method for determining the center of the apparent moon, is discussed in this paper, and calculation formulas are deduced in detail. Second, errors in the astronomical azimuth determination are quantitatively analyzed. Finally, two practical tests are performed in the central plains of China, and the results indicate that the difference between azimuth determination by Polaris and the moon is up to 7″ from two field tests.
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Acknowledgments
This project is partly sponsored by Natural Science Foundations of China (10878025). The authors are grateful to USNO and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for providing the NOVAS and Solar System Ephemeris DE405/406, respectively. The authors also appreciate the help from Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying and Mapping for providing all of the experiment instruments and conditions.
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Published In
Journal of Surveying Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 2 • May 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 10, 2013
Accepted: Sep 22, 2015
Published online: Dec 30, 2015
Published in print: May 1, 2016
Discussion open until: May 30, 2016
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